News of The World: Dominican priest shunned

[claire@siberia.demon.co.uk (Claire McNab)]

Subject:    Clipping NEWS OF THE WORLD Apr 19/98 - Page 14...
Date sent:  Mon, 20 Apr 98 08:09:34 +0100
From:       Brenda L Smith <Brenda.L.Smith@btinternet.com>
To:         "Claire McNab" <claire@siberia.demon.co.uk>


OCR'd from the NEWS OF THE WORLD, Apr 19/98... Page 14...
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Order's cruel snub to 'sex swap' priest
By JAN JACQUES

CATHOLIC priest Selwyn Gross devoted his life to ' the church and was
hugely popular with admiring parishioners.

But when doctors found he was suffering a rare medical condition which
meant HE was more of a SHE, Selwyn was cruelly dumped by his holy
order.

The priest, now known as Sally, was warned NOT to set foot in any
Dominican house, NOT to contact them and NOT to tell anyone she was a
member of the order.  Sally, 44, was even refused job references at
first.

And she was told her best option would be to work in a supermarket
stacking shelves-despite having an Oxford degree in Philosophy and
Theology.

Sally has a female passport, but has been told she is an hermaphrodite
because her sex organs are not clearly male or female. 

Bravely telling her story, Sally said: "To be cast out with nothing
nearly tipped me over the edge. At times I did think of suicide." Now
she lives alone in East Sussex. Her days are far removed from the busy
fulfilling she led as Father Gross five years ago.

He began as a novice in 1981 in the Dominican order of the Catholic
church in Oxford. Six years later, he was ordained as a priest.

Sally said: ''One l woman told me, 'I feel I can tell you things,
Father. You aren't like the others'."

She admitted: ''I knew I was different. I had taken the vow of
celibacy knowing that I would never break it.

"As I got older, it became obvious I was not a normal man. I didn't
have sexual urges for women or me." Gender experts confirmed the
condition and suggested living as a woman.

But when Sally asked the head of the order in Britain, Father Malcolm
McMahon, for leave, he issued instructions saying what she must not
do. She was even warned not to tell her parents of her dilemma. After
being granted leave, Sally had hormone therapy.

In 1994, an order representative discussed her dispensation-the
process to make her a lay person again.

But she later found that her request was wrongly treated as if she
wanted to break her vow of celibacy.

Ironically, church heads have been more merciful with priests who have
sinned. Father Terence Fitzpatrick, of Reading, admitted a sexual
relationship but was accepted back in the Church after psychiatrlc
treatment.

Sally, who has now joined a Quaker group, added: "I have been treated
terribly."

Last night Father McMahon said: "That is not how I recollect it, but
it was some time ago. I would not have refused references. "Selwyn, or
Sally, was very gifted, talented and valued."